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Books written as Mary James and under other pen names as well as short stories are also included though in separate lists. Very brief plot summaries follow most of the titles. Some of the titles link to the "Comments" page where you will find commentary about that particular book. Beware that there are spoilers in the "Comments" section.

CHOOSE BOOK TITLE:

• Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! 1972
  Tucker Woolf, finds a cat but has to give it away due to his father's allergic reaction. He then meets Dinky Hocker, a girl in the neighborhood (Brooklyn Heights), when she responds to the sign he puts up for his cat asking, "Do you feel unwanted, in the way, and the cause of everyone's misery?...If you know how a loser feels and want to help, call Main 4-8415. (p. 6)" Tucker gradually gets to know Dinky and about her "issues", a main one being that her mother is eager to help drug users but ignores Dinky's needs. Dinky copes with neglect by overeating.    Read excerpt.

 
• If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever? 1973
  Alan Bennet narrates a story about his classmate, Duncan Stein, who is nicknamed "Doomed". Duncan's parents are in town to form a half-way house for alcoholics. The story follows Alan and Duncan through their last year of high school in Cayuta, New York.

 
• The Son of Someone Famous 1974 Adam Blessing deals with having a famous politician father and his actress girlfriends. In the meantime, he becomes friendly with 16 year old Brenda Belle Blossom.

 
• Is That You, Miss Blue? 1975
  Flanders Brown, 14, narrates her experience at boarding school. Miss Blue is the faculty member assigned to live on Flanders' floor. Along the way, Flanders meets Carolyn Cardmaker, who's old hat with going to school away from home, and another student, Agnes. Based on Kerr's own boarding school experience.

 
• Love Is A Missing Person 1975
  Suzy Slade, of the Long Island Slades, describes her life with her sister, Chicago, moving back into town and her parents, who are divorced from each. She also observes relationships around her like the one between her friend Nan and the famous Roger Coe.

 
• I'll Love You When You're More Like Me 1977 Wallace Witherspoon, Jr., son of a mortician, has his share of friendship and romance during the summer before his senior year of high school. But he finds some differences can be resolved and that others are more challenging.

 
• Gentlehands
  A Long Island teenager, Buddy Boyle, experiences summer romance with Skye Pennington, a girl with better socioeconomic status than he. To impress her, he takes her to his estranged grandfather's estate, thus starting a relationship with him. His grandfather's past is clouded with mystery as someone else is in the area investigating the existence of a Nazi war criminal by the nickname of "Gentlehands." Does Buddy's grandfather know anything about him?  Read excerpt.

 
• Little Little 1981
  Sydney Cinnamon, who's found fame as a cockroach, co-narrates this story with Little Little La Belle, who's been raised more privileged and protected. She is a "p.f.", a perfectly formed dwarf, while Sydney, also a dwarf, has a hump on his back. Aside from class differences, these physical differences seem to have also contributed to their perspectives on life and others' views and expectation of them.

 
• What I Really Think of You 1982
  A contrasting look at two "P.K.'s", or Preacher's Kids, Opal Ringer, whose father is a Pentecostal preacher with a dwindling congegration, and Jesse Pegler, whose father is a television Evangelist.

 
• Me Me Me Me Me: Not a Novel 1983
  M. E. Kerr tells her readers a little something about her childhood, adolescence and early adulthood, not necessarily in that order, and traces her development as a writer. She shows how events and people in her life inspired themes and characters in her writing. M. E. Kerr explains in the introduction that she wrote this book in response to readers questions about whether things that happen in her books happened to her.

 
• Him She Loves? 1984
  Henry Schiller, 16, narrates the story of his family's move to Seaville, Long Island and their new German restaurant. Henry has eyes for Valerie Kissenwiser who is Jewish (he is not) and whose father forbids their dating.

 
• I Stay Near You 1985
  "I Stay Near You" refers to an inscription in a gold ring, the Storm family has as an heirloom and tradition to pass it down from father to eldest son. The story follows three generations of the Storm family via Mildred Cone, a harpist whose life intersects with the Storms'.

 
• Night Kites 1986
  Erick Rudd, a teen, narrates the story of how his family deals with life when his older brother, Pete, returns home living with but slowly being overcome by AIDS. This book was written in the early days of AIDS awareness, before people were very educated about the virus. In fact, this book has the status of being one of the first books written about the subject in either young adult or adult fiction. The uncertainty and fear stirred up by Pete's poor health is reflected by family members and citizens of the town. M. E. Kerr says that when she wrote this book, she really thought that the epidemic would be short-lasting and that a cure was around the corner. Little did she know that people would still be able to relate to this story over a decade later.    Read excerpt.

 
• Fell 1987
  John Fell ("Fell") is the protagonist of this story which is divided into two parts. In the first part, we learn about Fell, a junior in high school, and his social life and family life. Then the stage is set for the second part which can be described as a mystery involving his arrangement with a wealthy man and an exclusive prep school, Gardner. We also learn about the Sevens Club, an exclusive club at Gardner. Read excerpt.

 
• Fell Back 1989

The sequel to Fell, the story picks up where the last one ended. John Fell is still a student at Gardner. He investigates the murder/suicide of another student. Once again, the Sevens Club plays a pivotal role in the motivation of various characters.
 
• Fell Down 1991
  This book is the third installment of the "Fell" mystery series. John Fell investigates the death of his friend. In doing so, he learns a little about the world of ventriloquism. The book jumps between the past and present to bring the story together.

 
• Linger 1993
  Gary Peele, 16, narrates this story set at the time of the Gulf War. The center of activity is an upscale restaurant owned by the Dunlingers and named "Linger". Gary's brother, Bobby, has gone overseas to fight in the war. Prejudice, bigotry and hypocrisy play a role in the lives of the townspeople.

 
• Deliver Us From Evie 1994
  Parr Burrman narrates the story of life on his family's farm and everyone's reaction to his sister Evie's romantic relationship with Patsy Duff, a girl from the wealthiest family in town. Familial conflicts arise. Friendships, romances and career-track choices, in Parr and his older brother Doug's lives are also addressed.   

 
• "Hello," I Lied 1997
  Lang goes to spend the summer on Long Island with his mother on a rock legend's estate where she'll be working. He has to leave his boyfriend, Alex, in New York City, where they both live. Enter Huguette, a girl who means a lot to the rocker and could mean a lot to Lang by summer's end.    Read excerpt.

 
• Blood on the Forehead: What I Know About Writing 1998
  M. E. Kerr gives her readers writing tips through examples of her own writing. Included in the book are five short stories and chapters from four of her novels.    Read excerpt.

 
• What Became of Her 2000
  The story is set in a small town in Pennsylvania and centers around the goings-on and residents of a mansion on a hill, known as Peligro. When the drama opens, Edgar (E.C.), 16, is invited to Peligro with his mother, an astrologist. There he meets Rosalind Slaymaster, her adopted niece, Julie, 15, and her leather "son," Peale. Once E.C.'s best friend Neal, 18, meets Julie, the three become fast friends. Still, there is a mystery surrounding Rosalind Slaymaster and her return to the town that she now practically owns. As the three teens learn more about each other, elements of the past rise up to challenge their friendship.    Read excerpt.

 

• The Books of Fell 2001
  The three books in the Fell mystery series are now available in one. For plot summaries, see above (Fell, Fell Back and Fell Down). Read excerpt.

 
• Slap Your Sides 2001
  Hitler is on the rise and America has officially joined WWII. Bud Shoemaker becomes a Conscientious Objector due to his religious beliefs and he, along with his younger brother, Jubal Shoemaker and the rest of his family are challenged to stand behind his CO status. Jubal's friendship/romance with Daria is also filled with tension in part from the typical issues of teen relationships and in part from the dissenting beliefs about Bud's refusal to take part in combat while other men from their small hometown in Pennsylvania are fighting abroad. Read excerpt.
• Snakes Don't Miss Their Mothers 2003
  Card catalog description: "The animals at Critters animal shelter look forward to Christmas as well as the ever-present possibility of adoption." Read longer summary or read excerpt. Also available are reviews.
• Your Eyes In Stars 2006
  NOTE: I'm going to quote M. E. Kerr from our 2006 interview for this one: "I was revisiting my home town, Auburn, NY. I've always been intrigued by the fact we had a prison sitting in the center of town. I was there recently and I opened the blinds in the motel I was staying and there's the prison. You can never escape it. And there was Copper John on top of the prison and the guards walking. And yet they passed around something about the town and they never mentioned the prison. It's always the elephant in the room. It's there but no one talks about it. And when I was young, I was intrigued with it. All the kids were and I never forgot it and so I write about the prison. One of my characters is the warden's daughter and she has many things to tell about the prison. And I chose the '30's, the late '30's, right before World War II because that was when I became most aware of the coming, the approaching war largely through Jews that came to our town to escape what was going on in Germany. So I blended the two things in Your Eyes in Stars to tell my story about the friendship between a young upstate New York girl in her teens and a young girl from Germany."
• Someone Like Summer 2007
  Annabel Brown meets Esteban Santiago and life becomes a little more interesting. This story, set in the Hamptons on Long Island, is about teenage romance as complicated by the boy being an illegal immigrant trying to make ends meet and the girl being part of a community where the residents have strong feelings about the illegals. Annabel also learns Esteban's family and friends have strong feelings about him dating a Caucasian. But for Annabel and Esteban, they can't help the attraction they feel towards each other and desire to see how their relationship might develop despite enormous obstacles.

Published in Compact Magazine in the 1950s, titles forthcoming

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